Show prom from Washington By REPRESENTATIVE LAURENCE J. J BURTON UTAH R-UTAH The traffic that a guy has to tonit put nit up with in this town is almost almost almost al al- most more than he hel can bear By this town I me mean mean n Washington DC D.C. the Nations Nation's wonderful Capital Like for instance yesterday morning I was moving in a along along along long almost endless two-lane two string of traffic bumper to bumper I use the word moving moving moving ing rather loosely I suppose because it was stop wait a minute min min- ut ute rite or two start again move ahead several car lengths and stop some more This went on for 30 minutes or so and understandably understandably un un- I was getting more nervous frustrated and fidgety as each minute went by And then it happened The guy in the car ahead of me it was a late model Chevrolet Chevrolet Chevrolet Chev Chev- rolet green with Virginia license licen licen- se tags I remember very well flung open the door jumped out shouted something Inaudible inaudible inaudible inaudi inaudi- ble kicked the right front tire real hard and then just walked off leaving his car right there I could not believe my eyes but it happened I couldn't se see see where he went but I suspect it was to the nearest bar barl I Well that only made the traffic traffic traffic fic jam worse of course All of ofus ofus ofus us behind had to squeeze into the theother theother theother other lane which was was already fully occupied To conclude this store without having to travel bumper to bumper all the way there and back episode I finally got out of the mess a few minutes later and made it to the sanctuary of my office But I couldn't help thinking thinking thinking think think- ing about the guy who abandoned abandon abandon- ed the car and I still cant His car was gone when I passed by the spot that evening and I suppose the police impounded it Undoubtedly he had to pay a substantial fine to get it back But what an act of courage courage- and sheer desperation I By abandoning abandoning abandoning aban aban- his car he only made matters worse for the rest of us But as the drama unfolded I had the urge to get out of car carand carand carand and give him a ringing che cheer r. r There he was Walter Mitty defeating defeating defeating de de- de- de the whole lousy system by just walking out Upon occasion occasion occasion occa occa- sion I had felt like doing the same thing myself but being a atrue atrue atrue true Utah conservative I simply wouldn't be able to abandon such sucha a big investment as the family car particularly since it isn't paid for yet This particular traffic up tie-up was occasioned by some road repairs and so was worse than usual But even even the usual In Washington is extra ordinary by Utah standards There are some people living in the Washington metropolitan area It sometimes seems th tha f all of them work in downtown Washington Washington Washington Wash Wash- ington and that they all travel to and from work at the same time a single occupant in each car Needless to say some of the traffic jams around here are real lulus Beginning about 4 pm p.m. and lasting until 6 o'clock all the arteries leading from Washington Washing Washing- ton are clogged and I mean literally with downtown workers work work- ers mostly federal employees returning to their homes in the Maryland and Virginia suburbs The same of course is true inthe Inthe in hi hithe the morning hours when people are on their way to work During these peak traffic hours there simply is no way that a person can travel from one point in the city to any other other other oth oth- er with any real speed A trip undertaken at these times will almost certainly involve bumper to bumper traffic with all the trimmings Many taxi drivers simply pa pack k their cabs beneath beneatha a tree and wait for the peak to pass rather than collect a fare for a harrowing hour ride that that-in that in peak non-peak periods can be bel l made in 15 minutes Complicating the Washington traffic problem are the nine million million mil mil- lion and some-odd some tourists who visit the city annually Not all of these come by automobile of course But a good many of them do and they are re increasing in numbers And tourists in Washington have an even harder hard er time driving in Washington than do the natives because the city is laid out in hi a way designed designed designed de de- signed more to confuse than to assist the traveler Anybody who has driven in Washington will testify to that It follows of course that the more visitors who get lost on Washington's streets or who sightsee while driving the more the traffic tends to get tied up New highways are constantly being built in the Washington area but like everywhere else the programs dont don't seem to be able to keep up with the increasing number of cars Then too there is always the possibility that the improved traffic arteries in hi the city will detract from Its unique beauty After all you cant can't build a six six- lane expressway right through the Lincoln Memorial Unlike New York Washington does not have a subway system It really should have one and one and as a matter of fact must have soon or the traffic problems here will drive us all out of our automobiles automobiles automobiles auto auto- mobiles and into the bars just like my friend Happily there is activity underway now to build a subway but it will be several years before any of it will be in operation Washington of course isn't the only city with a traffic lem We have them in our Utah communities too but certainly not to such a great extent Unquestionably Unquestionably Unquestionably Un Un- questionably traffic will get worse all over Today there are some 81 million cars on the roads in the United States But by the end of the century only 32 years from now there willbe will willbe willbe be million so the experts predict Obviously weve we've got to get cracking to solve the traffic problems or well we'll have million mil mU lion automobiles and wont won't beable beable be beable able to drive them anywhere To those of you in the pleas- pleas sant likes of Panguitch Ephr Ephraim im imand and Manti take heart The people pea peo pie of Washington envy your being being be be- ing hg able to go to the grocery |